Tiger Claw
Tiger Claw is a secondary antagonist in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He is a skilled assassin/bounty hunter from Japan who became one of Shredder's hench-mutants when Shredder came in search of recruits. He made his debut in the episode [[Wormquake!|''Wormquake!]]. When he makes a return in [[The Wrath of Tiger Claw|The Wrath of Tiger Claw]], he is shown to be more powerful than ever -- and now has a personal grudge against the Ninja Turtles, Splinter, April and Casey. '''Shredder's Super Assassin' Official Description "I was just a normal boy in Japan until the Kraang turned me into their greatest bounty hunter: half man, half tiger. My skills are so superior that Shredder has made me his second in command, and with good reason-I am nearly invincible! (Except that there's a bowl of skim milk around.)" '' '''-''' Tiger Claw''' History Early Life Born in 1976 as a young Japanese boy, Takeshi and his sister Alopex were playing in a park when a portal to Dimension X was opened. Thinking it was a magic door, the two went through it and were subsequently captured. The two children were experimented on by The Kraang and splashed with Mutagen, causing him to mutate into a 6-and-1/2-foot-tall humanoid Bengal tiger with razor-sharp claws and teeth while sister mutated into a humanoid red fox. They escaped but because of their new appearance they were rejected and left their village resorting to performing as a circus animals before becoming a part of the criminal underworld becoming the most dreaded assassin and bounty hunter pair, feared throughout Asia. One day, Alopex turned on him and he lost his tail during the duel, and he has been relentlessly searching for his sister who took it from him, seeking to terminate her and when he finds her, it will probably be in a very gruesome way. Season 2: [[Wormquake!|'''''Wormquake!]]: '''When Tiger Claw makes his debut in this episode, he is ready for fight the Turtles and Master Splinter with Karai, but is eaten by a Kraathatrogon. [[The Wrath of Tiger Claw|The Wrath of Tiger Claw]]:' Tiger Claw returns from escaping the belly of the Kraathatrogon and traveling through multiple dimensions back to Shredder for vengeance against the Turtles, first going after Casey Jones before being stopped from killing Leonardo by Karai. [[The Legend of the Kuro Kabuto|The Legend of the Kuro Kabuto]]':' Tiger Claw participates in the search for The Kuro Kabuto with Rahzar, Fishface and Stockman-Fly. [[Vengeance is Mine|Vengeance is Mine]]':' Tiger Claw fights Karai when she was rescued by the Turtles before mutated into a snake. [[The Invasion|The Invasion]]':' Tiger Claw fights Leo with Rahzar and Fishface before attacking the other three Turtles at April O'Neil's house. Season 3: [[Vision Quest|Vision Quest]]':' Tiger Claw returns as a spiritual vision fighting Mystic Donatello with the aid of the Foot Soldiers. [[Return to New York|Return to New York]]':' After the Turtles return to search for Splinter, Shredder and Tiger Claw find the Turtles with Master Splinter in Stockman-Fly's lab, fighting Shredder's mutant clones. He attempts to capture the Turtles, Splinter, April, and Casey as they escape in the Party Wagon, but fails when Mikey burns him from behind. [[Serpent Hunt|Serpent Hunt]]': Tiger Claw makes a brief appearance in Shredder's lair, where Shredder threatens Rahzar and Fishface that they'll be handed over to him if they don't find Karai. ''The Pig and the Rhino: '''Tiger Claw makes another brief appearance watching Shredder beat up Bebop and Rocksteady. [[Casey Jones VS. The Underworld|Casey Jones VS. The Underworld]]':' He and Fishface are present during the Shredder's visit to Don Vizioso. Later, Tiger Claw is seen on Auman Chemicals factory where he is fighting Raph [[Clash of the Mutanimals|'Clash of the Mutanimals']]':' Tiger Claw is seen making a deal with the Fulci Twins, trading a case of money for the final ingredient of Shredder's mind control serum. Everything is going great until Slash and the Mighty Mutanimals show up. He defeats them all and kicks Leatherhead and Pigeon Pete into the river, escaping with Slash and Dr. Tyler Rockwell. He is later seen fighting Mikey and tieing Mikey in his own nunchucks. [[Meet Mondo Gecko|Meet Mondo Gecko]]': ' [[Attack of the Mega Shredder|Attack of the Mega Shredder]]':' Tiger Claw helps Bebop, Rocksteady and Shredder's mutant clones to fight the Turtles whowere sneaking into the lair so they could steal a brain worm to cure Karai from her mind control state. Unfornately for the villains, they manage to escape, Tiger Claw starts blaming the pig and the rhino for this. Shredder comes and says if the Turtles sneak there one more time, he'll punish all of them. Bebop and Rocksteady mess again and let the Turtles escape with a brain worm. Tired of their failures, Shredder orders Tiger Claw to teach them a lesson of pain and Tiger Claw agrees as he bounces to them. [[Annihilation Earth|Annihilation Earth]]':'' He helped fight the Triceratons and helped prevent the Heart of Darkness from starting. However he is later killed when the Earth is destroyed. Season 4 Journey to the Center of Mikey's Mind: Tiger Claw made a cameo in Michelangelo's imagination. [[Trans-Dimensional Turtles|'Trans-Dimensional Turtles']]: 'Tiger Claw cuts open the Kraathatrogon that ate him and fought against the 1987 Turtles [[Earth's Last Stand|'Earth's Last Stand]]: Tiger Claw helps up a beaten Shredder and promised Splinter that he and the Foot Clan will return [[City at War|'City at War']]: Tiger Claw, along with Fishface and Rahzar, follow Karai and her friend Shinigami to a martial arts store where Shredder keeps a large number of illegal weapons. Tiger Claw uses his feline senses to discover that now the brain worm is gone, Karai has her free will back and she's their enemy once more. The girls use a surprise trick by turning off the lights, Tiger Claw is hypnotized by Shinigami so he could let his guard go down and then Shinigami starts attacking him and proves to be extremely fast as she dodges all Tiger Claw's attacks but she still gets defeated by him as he uses his jetpack to slam her in the ceilling and Tiger Claw orders Karai to surrender or her friend would perrish. Karai with no other choice agrees without texting to the Turtles first, Tiger Claw figures out a few minutes later that she called the Turtles and destroys Karai's phone with his claws but Karai frees herself and still gets overpowered by the tiger and prepares to be killed but the Turtles and April arrived in time. Leo, Raph and Karai fight Tiger Claw but he overpoweres them all and Karai lets her mutant self surface and turns her arms into their mutant versions to tie him up but Tiger Claw overpoweres her and before he could shoot Leo and Karai with his blaster uses a dust bomb to blind him and delivers The Dragon's Tail right between his legs causing him to fall to his knees and the Turtles and their allies escape. Only to figure out they set tons of explosives around the warehouse. The mutants try to escape but they block accidentally the door of exit and get caught in the explosion. Tiger Claw goes to see Shredder who's being hospitalized by Stockman and tells Karai wants to take down his empire piece by piece as she destroyed their weapons cache and he believes she's not going to stop there. Broken Foot: The Super Shredder: Tiger Claw enters in Shredder's room to see what happened with his master and then he sees his master now a mutant. He starts blaming Stockman for that before Shredder replies this is what he wanted and says its time to bait a trap for Splinter. He invades Shredder's old lair where Karai was now stationed with her own Foot Clan with Rahzar before letting his master in. He tries to help Shredder but Shredder overpoweres them all and takes Karai as prisioner. A little later, he and Rahzar use a train to separate the Turtles and April from Splinter. Rahzar is thrown off the tran thanks to April and Donnie, Tiger Claw also gets thrown out off the train by Raph but uses his jetpack to move back and almost makes Raph get hit by another train if Leo didn't come to save his brother so Tiger Claw gets hit by the train. [[Darkest Plight|'Darkest Plight']]: Tiger Claw helps Shredder climb the abyss he and Splinter fell, then Shredder's hand falls apart again. Tiger Claw advices his master to do not take more mutagen as it can be deadly. They find Karai, Leo and April and Shredder orders Tiger Claw to destroy April and bring Karai and Leonardo (so he could destroy him) to him. Tiger Claw follows the trio to a roof and throws Leonardo to an alley but Karai manages to get rid of him using her serpent form to throw him into power lines to eletrocute him and weaken him. He later rescues Shredder and takes him back to the mansion, he begs Shredder to do not take more mutagen as it could destroy him but Shredder doesn't listen to him and forces Stockman to administer a stronger doze of mutagen on him. Tiger Claw can only watch his master let out a scream. [[The Power Inside Her|'The Power Inside Her']]: Tiger Claw, Rahzar and Fishface steal tons of canisters of mutagen from a Kraang lab to help Shredder maintain his mutation. Casey hears that and decides to confront them. When Rahzar gets defeated and thrown off the van, Tiger Claw decides to defeat Casey himself. Casey hits him with the door of the back to throw him off but Tiger Claw uses his jetpack to fly back to the van and starts shooting lasers at Casey with his guns and cuts one of Casey's photon pucks in half that hit the Elite Foot-Bots instead but gets caught in the blast. Fishface gets eletrocuted leaving Casey to drive the van but in the middle of the road he hits a dumpster which sents him to fly and land on an alley. They prepare to finish him off but April, now fully consumed by an evil influence of her Aeon crystal, arrives to confront them. Fishface gets one of his mechanical legs broken and Rahzar gets slammed by a dumpster leaving only Tiger Claw. He tries to attack April with his sword only to be immobilized and physically choked before being thrown into a wall and knocked him out. Season 5 [[Scroll of the Demodragon|'Scroll of the Demodragon']]: Sometime after Shredder's demise, Tiger Claw has gone underground and round up his Foot Cultist into obtaining the Scroll of the Demodragon to finally summon Kavaxas. He then reveals his plan to utilize Kavaxas wish-granting ability to resurrect the Shredder from the dead.' ' [[The Forgotten Swordsman|'The Forgotten Swordsman']]: Tiger Claw orders Kavaxas to resurrect Rahzar who was murdered by Leatherhead in Requiem. Kavaxas tells Tiger Claw that he can't resurrect Shredder yet as he needs the heart and Kuro Kabuto. Later on, Tiger Claw, Kavaxas and Rahzar attack Hattori Tatsu, who had the kabuto and killed him. [[Heart of Evil|'Heart of Evil']]: Tiger Claw speaks with Rocksteady and Bebop to find the Shredder's heart and they found out Don Vizioso is in possession of the organ. Tiger Claw along with Kavaxas attack the Italian Mafia and the Turtles. Kavaxas gets the heart and gives it to Tiger Claw who then resurrects Shredder [[End Times|'End Times']]: Tiger Claw's plans seem to be going successfully as Shredder rises from his coffin and returns to the world of living. After a battle with the turtles, Tiger Claw was demoted by Shredder and gave his old rank to Kavaxas. Tiger Claw was furious and questioned if Shredder really was awake or simply the puppet of Kavaxas. Shredder orders the tiger to give Kavaxas the seal of the ancients however, knowing that it will destroy the world, he denies to. Shredder orders Rahzar to kill Tiger Claw who then attempts to use the Seal of the Ancients however it is then destroyed by Shredder. Kavaxas then runs loose and opens the Netherworld with revealing Shredder and Rahzar as his minions. While Rocksteady and Bebop turn chicken, Tiger Claw stands his ground fighting Rahzar and Shredder. The Turtles arrive to help Tiger Claw who tries to make up his harsh mistakes just to get the Turtles. Tiger Claw sends Rahzar back to the netherworld and is almost knocked in it by Shredder. When Kavaxas was defeated and sent back to the Netherworld. Tiger Claw, Leo and Karai watch as the portal closes and everything returns to normal. It is then revealed Tiger Claw declared a truce after the incident and it would be the last time he would be seen in the series. Personality As s benefit of being a tiger, Tiger Claw is aggressive and ferocious, as well as vengeful and a great hunter. And like the best of assassins he is relentless and sometimes cruel. Brutality is second nature to him. But he respects other warriors like Rahzar and his employers like Shredder. However in comparison to the other henchmutants especially since Season 3, Tiger Claw shows concern over Shredder's destructive behavior and when the Kraang take over New York City he questions the wisdom of allowing them to continue with their propaganda, and when Shredder kills Splinter instead of destroying the Heart of Darkness Tiger Claw confronts Shredder about his lust for vengeance making him endanger humankind for his own selfish agenda. Tiger Claw also values innocents who are about to suffer whereas the other henchmutants just blindly follow Shredder's orders. Weapons Tiger Claw has a western outfit, wears bandoliers full of replacement bullets and carries several weapons, among which include a giant sword for hand to hand combat, a firerarm able to shoot nets and freeze rays and another high-powered firearm with the ability to fire red lasers. Tiger Claw also has a sniper rifle and a jetpack for evasion and escape. Powers and Skills He has the strength, speed, and acrobatic of a tiger as well as razor sharp claws and sharp teeth (though he could well be stronger than a normal one). '''Acrobatics: '''He seems to have very flexible skills that he may have learned from other acrobats during his circus days. '''Savage Might and Fighting Skills: '''He is a very skilled and powerful fighter for Shredder as he was able to escape the Kraathatrogon, fight off an army of Kraang, and defeat the Turtles. He proved himself a formidable opponent for Splinter, although the more experienced fighter clearly had a slight upper hand. '''Enhanced Senses: '''His sense of smell is even greater that of Rahzar. He was able track down his enemy from further away. He can hear a mouse skittering around in an alleyway from far distance. '''Enhanced Strength: '''It is mentioned that he is three times stronger than Donatello. He has shown his strength was able to hold his own battle against the Turtles in The Wrath of Tiger Claw. Also he was able to throw Leo weight to April's building and bend a steel bar with his hands. He can also jump high enough to land on the window. '''Enhanced Speed and Agility '''Due to his mutant form Tiger Claw is very fast and and agile as he was able to avoid Raph's attacks. Karai was also faced a difficulty keeping up with him. '''Intelligence and Communication: '''He seems to have his intelligence as human and has retained despite his mutation, since he is shown to know why Shredder wants him to work with Karai because she knows where they are but she didn't figure it out. As he was able to figure ways to win against his opponents as he was able to make them call Master Splinter. He is able to speak perfectly and can still roar and growl while talking. '''Stamina and Endurance: '''His stamina is not yet shown to be exhausted to fight at all since he was facing the Turtles. He also said that he face the army of Kraang to escape their home. His muscular body is able to take the attacks Karai as shown no sign that he was in pain from her. Character Interactions Tiger Claw (Character Interactions) Trivia *Tiger Claw is a master of all weapons and collects them from most of the warriors that he defeats in mortal combat. *Tiger Claw's bullet bandoliers have an "X" buckle that resembles a sideways NES controller D-pad. *"Tiger Claw" in Japanese spells the words Tora No Tsume, which is also a popular type of Katana sword. *Tiger Claw was taken to the dimension of the 1987 Turtles at the end of the episode 'Wormquake' and was shown to engage them in combat in a flashback in the episode 'The Wrath of TIger Claw.' 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